New nutrition bars

[Guest guest]

In man's quest for a better nutrition bar, three new products have hit the

market just in time to pop into your kid's lunch box (or your own).

If you're into chewy and gooey, go for Keribars (12-bar case, $23.88 ),

available at Palm Beach's Trump Golf Course, of all places, and online at

keribars.com. Brown rice syrup gives each 40-gram bar sweetness plus a gooeyness

that could wreck inferior dental work. Oats, flaxseed and brown rice provide

fiber. The strawberry-chocolate chip bars contain berries and chips, but not so

you'd notice.

Dietitian-designed Keribars stand up nutritionally, with 160 calories, 5 grams

of fiber, 6 protein grams and 13 grams of sugar, but are no match for Florida's

heat. My bars arrived smooshed. Granted, this is nourishment, not art, but a

flattened Keribar is not spirit-lifting.

For uplift, look to Luna Sunrise bars (48 grams each, $1.19 at natural foods

stores), which say right on the wrapper, ``Food feeds our souls, lifts our

spirits, nourishes and sustains us.''

With 180 calories, 4 grams fat (2 saturated), 5 grams fiber, 8 grams protein and

11 grams sugar, a Sunrise bar nourishes and sustains with 70 percent organic

ingredients, including barley, quinoa and soy. The strawberry and ''crme'' bar

is thick, crunchy, pleasingly sweet and fashion-forward, with stylish swizzles

of yogurt on top, but alas, tastes of neither strawberry nor crme.

Marketed as a breakfast option for women, it's a nutrition bar, not hormone

replacement therapy, so guys, it's OK to power up with a LUNA; we'll still think

you're manly.

Barbara's Bakery Fruit and Yogurt Bars (8.9 ounce box of six, $3.99 at natural

foods stores) look like oblong Fig Newtons, and their whole-grain pastry wrap

has a nice soft, chew. Despite their name, though, the strawberry and apple

yogurt bars have a paucity of both fruit and yogurt -- bummer, Babs.

A 42-gram bar has 150 calories, 3 grams fat, no sat fat, 3 grams protein and 15

sugar grams. It's all-natural, but for all that earnest whole wheatiness, offers

only a gram of fiber.

All three bars are what manufacturers like to call satisfying (meaning filling),

deliver nutritionally and make sane snacking, but skimp on the promised

strawberries. You want fruit? Eat the real thing.

Ellen Kanner writes biweekly about vegetarian concerns.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/living/food/15338516.htm

Check Nutrition at:

Nutrition.teach-nology.com

Ortiz, RD

nrord@...

Check these food sayings:

http://lancaster.unl.edu/food/ftsep06.shtml